Ireland women’s sevens suffered a disappointing quarter-final defeat to a rampant Australia side at the Stade de France this evening, ending any medal hopes at these Games.
Allan Temple-Jones’ side advanced through to the knockout stages as the best third place team following the pool stages but were unable to match the physicality and intent of Australia, who recorded a 40-7 win as star winger Maddison Levi scored a hat-trick of tries.
It was a disappointing evening for Ireland after they had pushed Australia all the way in their earlier pool match, but the team can take great pride from their first Olympic appearance and will be determined to finish on a high when they face hosts France in Tuesday’s fifth place placing match at 2pm Irish time.
Speaking afterwards, Stacey Flood said: “It was not the performance we had been working towards, but credit to Australia, who showed their quality. We were unable to implement our game plan and, unfortunately ,when you give Australia that amount of possession and time on the ball, they’re going to punish you. We have to dust ourselves off now because there are still two games for us tomorrow and we will want to finish as high as we can.”